Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
A new regulation for issuing 1099′s
Posted by Joe Schmitter on Monday, July 26th, 2010 Categories:
This weekend I heard something on the Neil Boortz radio program that actually scared me. If you are a small business owner, you should be aware of a new requirement for filing 1099′s beginning in 2012. Amazingly enough, this new regulation was part of the Health Care Reform law recently passed. Would love to hear [Click Here]
Glimpsing the council’s true colors
Posted by admin on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 Categories:
One of the more interesting council discussions I’ve heard in the last couple of years happened Monday night. Before the council was a proposal to rezone about 20 acres of land near the city’s power plant on Business Loop 70. The area is surrounded by industrial zoning, yet it is zoned for residential use and [Click Here]
P&Z appointment breaks precedent
Posted by admin on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 Categories:
In a departure from its usual practice, the City Council Monday night opted not to reappoint one of the Planning and Zoning Commission’s most senior members. Nearly a dozen people applied for the two open spots on P&Z, one of the city’s most important commissions. Both commissioners whose terms had expired reapplied for their positions. [Click Here]
Tabling the Planning and Zoning Commission
Posted by admin on Friday, April 9th, 2010 Categories:
With the ouster from the council of Jerry Wade and Karl Skala, both former Planning and Zoning Commissioners, the zoning-review body could wane in influence. Over the last three years while those two sat on the council, the body’s recommendations seemed to carry more weight than in the past. Wade spearheaded a change to the [Click Here]
P&Z beefs up bylaws
Posted by admin on Friday, April 9th, 2010 Categories:
On Thursday night, the Planning and Zoning Commission passed a change to its operating procedures that establishes a standard time to table zoning requests where information is submitted late. I wrote about it at this post. Basically, the change says that the commission will usually table a request for at least two meetings when information [Click Here]
Local spending and the election
Posted by admin on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 Categories:
As I anticipated, my last post about spending locally (a little snarky, I admit) promptly got a response from one of the campaigns. Edge Wade, Mayoral candidate Jerry Wade’s wife, sent CBT an e-mail pointing out that her husband did make an attempt to buy everything locally for his campaign. Mrs. Wade noted that she [Click Here]
P&Z to penalize late zoning requests
Posted by admin on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 Categories:
Time is money, so while the Planning and Zoning commission can’t fine zoning applicants who submit late materials, a change in their bylaws would do pretty much the same thing. A draft of an amendment to the commission’s rules would make it custom practice for the commission to table any zoning request for two meetings [Click Here]
City election fundraising update
Posted by admin on Friday, March 5th, 2010 Categories:
*Correction: In a previous version of this post, I incorrectly reported the amount of in-kind contributions to Fourth Ward candidate Sarah Read. The correct amount is below. OK, last week I posted a pretty incomplete campaign finance report for mayoral candidates Jerry Wade and Bob McDavid. Since then, I’ve managed to make the time to [Click Here]
P&Z recommends against new commercial zoning on Grindstone
Posted by admin on Friday, March 5th, 2010 Categories:
The Planning and Zoning Commission had different ideas than the Planning Department Thursday night, diverging from staff’s recommendation and voting against a proposed rezoning on Grindstone Parkway across from the Walmart center. The request by Red Oak Investment Company, owned in part by Hugh Stephenson and his son Ted Stephenson as well as Robert Smith, [Click Here]
Top 5 reasons Columbia & Google are good for each other
Posted by Scott Wendling on Monday, March 1st, 2010 Categories:
There is a buzz going around Columbia about Google’s competition. They are choosing a small number of communities to install fiber optic communication lines throughout the community. It came to my attention that most people read that as “so…they’re going to give me faster internet?” The short answer is yes, but that is a side effect [Click Here]
Wade leads in campaign contributions, McDavid makes big strides
Posted by admin on Friday, February 26th, 2010 Categories:
With the release of Mayoral candidate Bob McDavid’s first campaign finance report today, we now have an indicator of how the race between him and Fourth Ward Councilman Jerry Wade is shaping up. Only those two candidates have reported any contributions or expenditures with the Missouri Ethics Commission. I’ll be updating this post after I [Click Here]
TDDs get more harsh words from state auditor
Posted by admin on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 Categories:
The Missouri State Auditor’s office released its third comprehensive audit of Transportation Development Districts Wednesday. Each audit since the first, conducted in 2006 by then-State Auditor Claire McCaskill, has been critical of the districts. State auditor Susan Montee’s office again raised concerns that professional services (i.e. legal counsel, engineering and bond underwriting) were not competitively [Click Here]
New twist in Kroenke group, country club dispute
Posted by admin on Friday, February 19th, 2010 Categories:
There’s a new twist in the effort to extend Conley Road from the Walmart shopping center through the Columbia Country Club to Business Loop 70. The Transportation Development District set up to fund the road extension project looks like it’s trying to get out of that obligation. The Walmart property owners, known as TKG Conley [Click Here]
Planning on using those growth plans?
Posted by admin on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 Categories:
There’s been a lot of talk about development in this town since I got here in the fall of ’06 — smart growth, no growth, whatever you want to call it. And the talk has intensified now that we’re in campaign season. Bob McDavid’s entry into the race suggests some concern in the business community [Click Here]
Conley Road extension on shaky ground
Posted by admin on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 Categories:
Have you ever found yourself at the eastern end of Business Loop 70, wishing you could just zip down past the Walmart to Broadway? Well, the city’s had that idea in mind for years, identifying an extension of Conley Road to Business Loop in its Major Thoroughfare Plan. The Missouri Department of Transportation has, too, [Click Here]